Sporting put William Carvalho up for sale, Arsenal & Man United may pounce [Record]

The transfer rumours surrounding highly-rated Sporting midfielder William Carvalho has stepped up a notch on Wednesday after Portuguese paper Recordhave announced that the 22-year-old has been put up for sale by the Lisbon club.

According to the narrative in Record, Sporting want to sell Carvalho while his value is high so they can fund new signings.

If accurate, Sporting’s actions also seem to calling for a bidding war for their highly-prized midfielder, who has been linked to Manchester United for several months.

Somewhat surprisingly, rather than claiming United are the frontrunners for Carvalho, Arsenal are now being name-dropped as possible suitors.

Arsenal have been chasing a central midfielder all summer, however recent weeks have seen efforts to sign Sami Khedira from Real Madrid fall by the wayside.

It’s worth noting that the Angolan-born defensive midfielder has £37m release clause in his contract, which is likely to be the fee which Sporting will require to let the player leave.

The youngster also has complicated ownership structure as Sporting only own 60% of Carvalho, while another company, BES, own 40%. Moreover, Carvalho is under contract at Sporting until 2018.